First up, tell us a little about yourself and your background.

I spent 6 years in US Marine Corps special operations. A school trained sniper, I also had the privilege of attending many of the classic spec ops schools including dive, freefall, etc...

After the military and 3 combat deployments, I moved right into the private sector.

I've worked for a broad spectrum of firms and clients all over the globe for the last 8 years.

What was your inspiration to join the military?

Being a kid, I think we all loved military stuff.

Growing up with Stallone and Arnold movies I fantasized about taking out terrorist's just like any other young boy. Other than that I didn't have a lot of inspiration.

I wasn't the guy in high school who worked to go to the military, I didn't have a lot of interest in it for many years. I got to college, did a year and hated it. Then one day I walked into a marine recruiting office and off I went.

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How did you prepare for Special forces physically and mentally?

I was the dude on weekends cranking out extra runs, lifting and resting when everyone else was out partying.

I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew regular Marine Corps wasn't going to be for me for long. There were bigger and better places I wanted to go in the corps.

I was never naturally the fastest or strongest, but I took every free minute I could to train harder than the other guy to get to the level I needed to be. I trained specifically for the physical demands I knew I'd be presented with at selection.

I put aside trying to gain big pecs or broad shoulders and focused on my run times, ruck distances, swims, and body weight movements for high scores.

How did it feel marching out and knowing what you had achieved?

One of the top 5 best days of my life.

Proving to myself that putting in all that time and hard work was really worth it. Seeing myself accomplish what I wanted, gave me a level of pride I'd never felt before until that day.

If you had limited time and equipment, what 5 exercises would you choose to perform?

1.) Push ups - they're the ultimate.

2.)Sit ups/planks

3.) Squats - you can find anything heavy and toss it on your back or over your head while you squat, to build that important leg strength.

4.) Pull ups - find a roof, a pipe, a rope, a bar, fence, anything you can grab and hang on. Just pull yourself up to it as many times as you can, doing as many sets as you want, every day. Pull ups will never ever get old.

5.) Line sprints - You don't even need a lot of distance. Get stationary and work on getting into a full sprint in as little time as possible. Build the power element and you can use that to compound for longer distances later.

What values/lessons of life have you learned from your experiences in the military?

Oh man a ton. For me personally the biggest one is to not take people's shit. You don't need to.

I've stood in a room with people that outranked me 10 fold and they listened when I had an opinion, because they respected me. People will try and undercut you any chance they get to get ahead or make themselves feel better.

Don't take it.

Respect people to the level you want to be respected and when they show you they can't do the same, write them off.

There's good people out there that are worth your time, don't waste it on shitty people or take their garbage.

Do you have any regrets in your career that you wish you could go back and change?

I wish I had gone to more schools in the military.

Looking back I was young and sometimes lazy and gave up opportunities I didn't think I needed that could have really looked great for me post military. Take every opportunity you can.

Are there any books/movies that you have found have been particularly motivating or helpful to you in your life?

There's a guy named Billy Waugh that wrote a book called "hunting the jackal" (amongst others).

Reading that book really showed me there's an enormous world out there of opportunity for people with skill sets. It gave me great ideas to pursue, and goals to accomplish the things I wanted post military.

It showed me how to set up a future I could see myself in.

Any final words?

Don't let people ever tell you "you can't."

I went to boot camp doing 5 pull-ups and had a shitty run time, to making myself elite because I worked for it. When you see something you want, work for it.

Work harder than someone else.

Run an extra mile past them, do an extra course, stay up an extra hour studying, get up an hour earlier to train, pick up an extra shift at work. You start doing things like that consistently and all of a sudden that "extra mile" becomes your norm.

A little bit of extra hard work will take you further than you can imagine.